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Man gets 30 years for sex crimes against 11 women

The crimes of Thomas Walter Oliver, 37, spanned 2007 through 2016. Six of his victims were underage.

Multnomah County prosecutors have announced a 30-year prison sentence for a man linked to sex crimes involving 11 women that spanned nearly a decade.

Thomas Walter Oliver, 37, pleaded guilty on Sept. 7 to five counts of first-degree rape, three counts of first-degree sodomy, two counts each of using a child in sexually explicit conduct and first-degree sex abuse, plus one count each of first-degree unlawful penetration and first-degree attempted rape.

Prosecutors had initially lobbed more than 80 charges against Oliver for sex crimes that occurred between 2007 through 2016 — leading to a bail amount of about $5.4 million. Oliver was arrested in May, 2017.

"You were just a bad Tinder date. I rarely thought about you before this and I'll probably forget your exact name in a few years," one survivor said in court this month. "I'm here to say that you going away is the only thing to give me solace."

Prosecutors proved that Oliver met some of his victims on a sex-trafficking website, while others were acquaintances, friends or people he met through conventional dating apps. Six of his identified victims were underage.

"You took things from us that you have no right to take, and now we are taking your freedom from you," a different survivor said. "I don't call you a monster. I have sympathy for monsters. Monsters are created by nature or circumstance. Yours is not a sickness of mind or body. It's a sickness of character."

Oliver's sentence will be slightly shortened to account for the time he has already spent behind bars. Once released, he will be under police supervision for another 11.5 years.

"It's taken many long and difficult years to get to this day," said a survivor. "In my mind, this sentence is for everyone you have ever hurt whether their names are on a piece of paper or not."